2023 Big Smoke Meets WhiskyFest Seminars: Rocky Patel And Jack Daniel’s
The final seminar of Big Smoke Meets WhiskyFest was a pairing of cigars and whisky, but not just any cigar and not just any whisky. The cigar was the Rocky Patel Sixty Sixty, a 96-point smoke as rated blind by Cigar Aficionado magazine. The whisky was the Jack Daniel’s Bonded, rated 97 points in a blind tasting by Whisky Advocate magazine. It was the No. 1 Whisky of the Year paired with the No. 1 (legal) Cigar of the Year, a panel of champions, and the audience was smoking and sipping along.
Leading the show was Cigar Aficionado managing editor Gregory Mottola.
Mottola got the tasting started by introducing the panel of experts who were on stage with him. From Rocky Patel Premium Cigars, it was owner Rocky Patel, who was joined by his brother Nish and his cousin Nimish Desai. For the whisky, it was Jack Daniel’s brand ambassador Eric “ET” Tecosky.
“I come from the bartending world, and my whole role was to make people happy,” said Tecosky. “I feel like cigars and whisky are an extension of that.”
Tecosky began by speaking a little about the history of Jack Daniel, the man. “A lot of people don’t realize that Jack Daniel was a real person,” he said, speaking about the namesake of this world-famous whisky brand. “He decided to go out and forge his own path. We’ve all done that, but Jack was eight years old when he did it.”
The young Daniel worked on a farm and a general store, but his life was changed forever when he saw his first whisky still. “Once Jack saw a whisky still, he said ‘this is what I want to do.’ ” Today Jack is massive, “the biggest single-label whisky in the world,” said Tecosky. “We’re the only major whisky maker on the planet that makes our own barrels—we buy the trees.”
Tecosky spoke about the nature of the term “bonded” on the whisky label, and how it was rooted in stopping unscrupulous vendors more than 100 years ago.
“In 1897, you walked into a bar, and you were going to be served beer or whisky,” he said. Beer was cheap, whisky was expensive. Some began adulterating the whisky, adding all manner of unsavory ingredients meant to stretch the product and allow it to be sold cheaper. Whisky makers were appalled, and sought governmental help, which created the Bottled In Bond Act, requiring the whisky in a bonded bottle to be the product of a single distillery, a single distilling season, aged a minimum of four years in a bonded warehouse and bottled at 100 proof. That’s the way it still works today. The 100 proof is the major difference between this whisky and traditional Jack. Or, as Tecosky said: “This is Jack Daniels turned up to 11.”
Mottola turned the microphone to Patel, asking him about what started this particular cigar project.
“We wanted to make something special for my 60th birthday. It’s amazing—I thought I was one of the youngsters in the business but now I’m getting up in age,” said Patel, who introduced his brother Nish, and his cousin Nimish Desai. “I learn on a daily basis, everything from the farming, to curing, the quality control…I’m known for making a lot of blends…the project here was to come up with a cigar that was unique and distinct. I think we made 64 different blends; we picked three,” he said, “Finally this was the blend that I chose…we passed it around and everybody thought it was something special. It’s my favorite part of being in the business,” said Patel. “The blending part.”
When Mottola asked Nish and Nimish if they were part of the panel, Nish answered: “It’s Rocky’s 60th, he had the final say. When the cigar was aging for two years, it was tough, he wanted the packaging to look just as sexy as the cigar was—that was the real tough part where we got involved. He was tough on us.”
“Speaking of packaging, this band is wrapped in like 30 labels,” joked Mottola. “What was behind that?”
“We wanted to showcase the flavor of the cigar—we wanted the package to show that rich decadence…We’re proud of it,” said Rocky.
The crowd happily puffed and sipped, listening to the experts, asking questions, absorbing information as they enjoyed these top-notch products. At one point, Tecosky saluted the crowd with his glass of Jack. “May you be as awesome as your dog thinks you are,” he said. “Cheers.”
See The Complete 2023 Big Smoke Meets WhiskyFest Coverage Below
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